As computer processing power has increased, the complexity of operating systems has increased. With increasing operating system complexity, installation of devices within the operating system and installation of applications requires more dynamic linked library (DLL) files and other system level files associated with an application.
Unfortunately, whereas the Apple II Plus® allowed for portability of an application without installation thereof between many different computers simply by porting the floppy disk on which the application instruction data was stored between the different computers, today's computer systems limit portability of applications due to the complex installation process and the system level files thereby installed.
Limited portability of applications also acts to support common application installations within an environment. Thus, within a same business, typically each employee has a computer system that is commonly configured with same software applications to support common data file formats and portability of data files. Further, removable peripheral memory storage devices such as USB memory keys are commonly used to port data between computer systems.
Unfortunately, some software applications do not readily lend themselves to widespread installation—either due to cost or to limited requirements for their use. Further, with the size and portability of USB memory keys, porting of data to locations outside of the business environment often occurs where common applications may or may not be available.
One solution to this problem is to provide user data that is self executing. This is common in self extracting compressed files wherein the extraction data is stored within the data file including the compressed data. Self extracting files, due to their limited system calls—memory access and storage access—are easily implemented in a system independent fashion. Conversely, a word processor with its complex system calls is not well suited to being implemented in a system independent fashion nor is it compact allowing for easy portability with each word processor data file.
It would be advantageous to provide a method of porting software applications that supports more complex software applications and allows for execution of those applications within different host computer environments without requiring the software application to be installed within each host computer environment